Madison County Planning Board's vote on 50-foot ridge top setback continued to December

MARSHALL - The county Planning Board's Nov. 21 meeting was a highly anticipated one, as residents packed the Marshall library ahead of the board's vote on a proposed text amendment that would scrap the county's 50-foot ridge top setback requirement when building houses.

But due to the anticipation being so high, the vote never came, and the board continued the meeting. The next meeting will take place Dec. 19.

"Guys, I'm sorry. We're just not going to get done tonight," Silver said. "There's another 10 people on this list, and there's probably at least 10 more that will want to speak after that. We all have jobs and we all have to work tomorrow, and I'm sure you guys do, too."

Madison County Planning Board Chair Jered Silver said more than 20 people signed up for public comment, and the board heard from roughly 10 residents, all of whom opposed the change, as well as the applicants, Russell Blevins and Clif Parker.

Blevins and Clif Parker in April purchased Mountain Park, a gated neighborhood in the Mars Hill headwaters of Gabriels Creek.

Parker is managing partner of Mountain Partners, the company that owns Mountain Park. Blevins and Parker own the undeveloped portions of Mountain Park.

Blevins and Parker presented to the board, and before their presentations, Silver encouraged the more than 75 people in attendance to act maturely.

"Mr. Blevins will have the opportunity to speak to the concerns of anybody involved," Silver said.

Blevins is the current chair of the Madison County Soil and Water Conservation District, as well as the chair of Mountain Valleys Resource Conservation and Development.

Blevins pointed out that the county's ridge tops are one of three overlay districts in the Madison County Land Use Ordinance, along with the floodplain and the watershed.

Blevins told The News-Record & Sentinel last month that he and Parker applied to have the Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance's 50-foot ridge top setback requirement removed because he wanted to build a cabin for his family, adding that he felt his children would want to potentially build cabins as well.

Blevins told The News-Record the 50-foot setback requirement makes building his potential residence more difficult, which he reiterated in the Nov. 21 meeting.

"The 50-foot setback pushes me on to steeper slopes," Blevins said. "I own both sides of that ridge. Everybody's talking about the ridges. It's really the mountains that I'm scared about and want to do something about, because the ridges are just the top, the mountains are the rest of it."

The North Carolina Mountain Ridge Protection Act of 1983 established protections in the form of building height restrictions for ridgelines at or above 3,000 feet, and came into legislation in response to an Avery County condominium complex, Sugar Mountain.

The county's Mountain Ridge Protection Ordinance added the 50-foot setback requirement in 2010.

But Blevins said the top of the ridge affords him the most stable soil on which to build.

"If you want to push me off the ridge — and I hate to keep bringing up Mountain Park — but when you go into Mountain Park and you get up to that gate and you look the left, there's about five or six houses that are just in your face. And we don't want that. We don't want the houses to just be sitting there in your face. There should be ways to try to hide this stuff.

"We need to get rid of this 50-foot setback because what it does is pushes me on the steep slope. It's just crazy in my mind that you're pushing me off a flat slope. If it was up to Russell Blevins, I'd say to everybody we need a 50-foot riparian buffer in all of Madison County to protect the water quality. But if you really want to protect water quality, that's what you need to do."

Parker invoked the Founding Fathers in his presentation to the board, structuring his arguments around freedoms, rights and responsibilities.

The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, as well as the 14th Amendment and the North Carolina Constitution basically said if you take property, then there has to be just compensation," Parker said. "So, my question is, did the county take any of that into consideration?"

Parker said Madison is the only county in the state that has a ridgetop setback requirement.

"I believe we are good stewards of the land," Parker said. "I don't think people realize there are more trees in Madison County today than there were 100 years ago."

Residents' thoughts

But of the nearly 10 residents who offered public comments in the meeting, a number of them disagreed with Parker on his stance that he and Blevins were good stewards of the land.

Sam Lang is an agronomist who lives in the Revere community.

"I've managed land and soil for 48 years in five states across the Southeast," Lang said. "I've worked with every type of soil there is. I've had my own company for 34 years.

"I look at land like this: We don't own it, we just rent it. This land is fragile. The mountains are fragile. These are unstable soils. We lose roads on Revere constantly due to slides and everything. This is a bad idea."

Other residents echoed Lang's contention that Blevins should ask for a conditional approval rather than request to remove the setback requirement totally.

"I understand Mr. Blevins wants to build a cabin up there," Lang said. "It's his land. I don't understand why he hasn't asked for just a variance for that project. I own land up on Revere. I don't get to do anything I want to with it.

"I want to do the right thing, and building on these ridge tops is the wrong thing. You've got to get a road up there to it."

More: Applicant hopes to scrap setbacks Developer: Scrap Madison ridge top setback building requirement. Residents want to keep it

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Casey Jennings is a Mars Hill resident.

"Our stewardship of these mountains is short, only a few ticks on the cosmic clock," Jennings said. "But if our vigilance fails, we invite our heirs to condemn us, and we will deserve it. You have two questions to ask here: First, is this ordinance needed? Second, is it wise?

"This change will brand a permanent, unconditional license for the whims of any man. It will declare open season on our ridges and de-jewel the Blue Ridge. And why? So that rich men with nary a drop of mountain blood in them can build castles in the clouds."

The Madison County Planning Board will meet Dec. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the Madison County Public Library's Marshall branch, located at 1335 N. Main St.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Madison Planning Board's vote on 50-foot ridge top setback continued